Spins
Small Sins reviewed
Small Sins Mood Swings (Astralwerks) Next time you bring a ruler to hip-hop’s knuckles for glorifying guns, you might consider stopping by electro pop for a swat or two.
The Coral reviewed
The Coral Roots And Echoes (Columbia/Red Ink) When The Coral emerged from the garage rock onslaught of 2001, the influences they boasted made their future sound as colorful and vast as their namesake. Just hearing the words “Captain Beefheart” provided refuge amid a sea of bands prepared to blurt “Iggy! MC5!”
Stateless reviewed
Stateless Stateless (K7) If hard times are the sister of vibrant new music, then it shouldn’t be too hard explaining Stateless.
Gene Watson reviewed
Gene Watson In A Perfect World (Shanachie) Country veteran Gene Watson has emerged from his gospel era intact, entering a new relationship with Shanachie Records as a back-to-basics man.
.40 Cal reviewed
Dipset Presents .40 Cal Broken Safety 2 (Koch) Dipset’s plan for manifest destiny includes keeping .40 Cal on an incredibly short leash.
Athlete reviewed
Athlete Beyond The Neighbourhood (Astralwerks) Even though it wasn’t cool to like it, there was a sense in the British press Athlete’s debut, Vehicles & Animals, was redeemable because it smacked of fun. It made the reaction to 2005’s Tourist — a backlash from people who were never in their corner to begin with — […]
The Simpsons sing!
THE SIMPSONS The Simpsons: Testify A Whole Lot More Original Music From The Television Series (Shout Factory) Here’s the thing about “The Simpsons”: It’s pretty hilarious. So yeah, Testify is pretty good, too.
Modeselektor reviewed
Modeselektor Happy Birthday! (Bpitch Control) Right up there in Most Relative Things Ever are musical-label applications. One man’s screamo is another’s metalcore; John Q’s post punk is his neighbor’s math rock. It gets even more complicated with electronic music, and few albums underscore it like Happy Birthday!
Mekons reviewed
Mekons Natural (Quarterstick) For their 30th anniversary, the Leeds-born punks forage off the country roads and through the fields. Appearing: September 28th at Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago.
Boris reviewed
Boris With Michio Kurihara Rainbow (Drag City) Low-end, Japanese noise terrorists call in a reinforcement for psychedelic doodling. Appearing: October 30th at Empty Bottle in Chicago.
Merle Haggard reviewed
Merle Haggard The Bluegrass Sessions (McCoury) Back-to-basics country music has been ubiquitous ever since Rick Rubin convinced Johnny Cash to have a seat. Merle Haggard, who has been releasing albums this year like the format’s going out of style (which it is), is going so far back he has come upon something he has never […]
Federico Aubele reviewed
Federico Aubele Panamericana (Eighteenth Street Lounge) Federico Aubele and Che Guevara seem unlikely bedfellows. Aubele surely had the Argentine revolutionary’s Motorcycle Diaries in mind when he envisioned this album traversing the Americas, but the two trips (Guevara’s actual, Aubele’s figurative) couldn’t be more different. Appearing: November 10th at Schubas in Chicago.
Suzy Bogguss reviewed
Suzy Bogguss Sweet Danger (LDR) Hard to believe it has been about 15 years since this downstate product was racking up the gold and platinum records. Appearing: September 16th at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn.
Travis Tritt reviewed!
Travis Tritt The Storm (Category 5) It’d be easy to sit back and say folks have tired of Travis Tritt, especially from a Yankee perspective. His era — that of Garth Brooks and Clint Black — is only survived by a bland-as-all-get-out Alan Jackson, while Tritt’s own appropriation of the Waylon image gets shakier the […]
Scorpions reviewed
Scorpions Humanity Hour 1 (New Door/UMe) Sensing they perhaps missed a chance when they failed to retire after “Winds Of Change,” Germany’s undying Scorpions try yet again to go out on a high note with Humanity Hour 1.
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